On Wed, Aug 30, 2006 at 06:27:32PM +1000, Nick Jenkins wrote:
The more interesting question is: If people can find a
way of adding
this type of functionality to the default install (but disabling it by
default) so that it doesn't impact you, should it be added?
Why not?
Worst case: if you want to add something that the development team
feels is so fundamentally incompatible with their ethos (or, more
likely, so complicated and prone to increase suppot load :-) that they
Just Won't Put It In, either fork, or, more likely, just maintain it as
a patch/dropin, and track the releases. It's *still* easier than
writing all of MediaWiki yourself.
On the plus side, it'd most likely lead to more
deployments of the
software, and hence more people familiar with the syntax, and more
people familiar with wikis in general, and what people get used to at
work they tend to use at home too (with potential positive impact).
On the negative side, maybe it's seen as complicating the software,
and endorsing a feature that's opposed to the fundamental aim of open
knowledge.
Well, at the risk of pissing people off, I'm gonna come down on the
"who gives a shit" side of that.
Someone has to be more Catholic than the pope, for progress to happen
-- but that's rms' job.
IMHO.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra(a)baylink.com
Designer Baylink RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA
http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274
The Internet: We paved paradise, and put up a snarking lot.